I was last at Gunsite 4 years ago when I took the class to get my AZ CCW permit. That was a 2 day class with 16 total hours of instruction. At that time, Gunsite was under different ownership / management than originally conceived by its founder, Jeff Cooper. Back then it was a good class with high quality instruction. But since then, Gunsite has gone back to its roots with new management more in line with Cooper's vision. And Cooper himself is back too. And the quality of instruction has improved.
I drove to Incline Village and then carpooled to Paulden with a friend of mine in his Hummer wagon. It was a total of 1,000 miles of travel all done in one day. We arrived in Paulden Friday evening and stayed at the Gunsite Lodge. This is a living space on the Gunsite property. It is a building with small private rooms that open into a common area including kitchen, bathroom and entertainment area. There is a dry fire range outside, a place to clean guns, and each room has gun safes in it. It's within walking distance to the Gunsite main area and classrooms.
We got up early Sat morning and went to the class which started at 8am. The class had about 25 people, about 10 of which were renewals. Approximately 4 class members were women. The classroom part was as expected, covering AZ weapons laws both criminal and civil. The instructors were all ex (or current) military and law enforcement guys. They provided plenty of great examples with practical info & advice. Overall the class had a military style atmosphere that was casual yet serious and informative.
Catered lunch was provided and was fresh and tasty. They even had a decent non dairy vegetarian meal.
We then went to the range, where we separated the class by renewal vs. first timers. More than half of the renewals were prior Gunsite students. The renewals who were non-Gunsite went back with the first timers for basic range lecture. The Gunsite grads remained on the firing line and began live fire target practice. We went through basic 5 step presentation drills from belt holsters (exposed or IWB). No shoulder holsters were used. Then we fired 2 round bursts at center of mass on the targets, with no time restraints. We did this from 3 yards to 7 yards. All students were making reasonable groups.
We then left the targets and Jeff (instructor) gave a short lecture on tactics: "slicing the pie". Then he left to set up a live fire shooting judgement exercise in the ravine next to the range.
The scenario: You are with friends & family on a camping trip. You and your male buddies are carrying weapons but your wives / children are not. You and your buddies are out fishing about 100 yards from the campsite. The path from you to the camp is a twisty ravine with plenty of hiding spaces. Suddenly you hear screams & gunshots coming from the camp. You must go through the ravine to the camp. While going through the ravine, you must look for bad guys. But there might also be friends / family (good gusy) in the ravine being held hostage by bad guys. You go through the ravine to the campsite, "slicing the pie". You shoot the bad guys, don't shoot the good guys, and don't expose yourself to any bad guys.
Each student went through this scenario individually with the instructor right behind (but not in your way), remaining mostly silent but providing tips and critique as you go.
When we returned from this exercise, we returned to the firing line for more live fire exercise. Each student had his hands at his sides with weapon secured as normal. Now the targets were sideways and they used timed electric controls to rotate them back and forth. When the target started to move, each student performed the 5 step presentation and fired 2 rounds to center of mass. This tested reaction, speed and smoothness, as we did not know when the targets were going to move or how long they'd stay before rotating back. At first we had 2.5 seconds but then they reduced it to 2 seconds and to 1.5 seconds. Even at 1.5 seconds, it was a requirement to get both shots into the center of mass. Thus you have a total of 1.5 seconds to react, present the weapon from its holster, and fire 2 shots hitting center of mass. This was done at a reasonably close range of 15 feet. Then they made a variation where after firing, after the target went back, we'd keep the gun out and ready. If the targets moved again within a few seconds we'd fire. Otherwise, we'd scan and reholster.
The live fire exercises were very educational, particulary the ravine exercise which was exciting too. I felt this one exercise alone made the entire class worthwhile. The excellent classroom portion was also a big bonus.